not regularly discovered until the Dutch, between the
years 1616 and 1627, explored a considerable portion of the northern and
western shores of that vast island, to which they gave the name of their
own country, Holland. To the Spaniards this land was known by the names
of Terra Australis Incognita, (The Unknown Southern Land,) or Australia
del Espiritu Santo, (The Southern Land of the Holy Spirit,) the meaning
of which last name does not exactly appear, unless it arose from the
discovery of Quiros having been made a little before Whitsuntide. Since
that time the coasts of this immense island, extending, it is said, to
no less than 8000 miles, have been gradually explored, although they
still remain in some parts very imperfectly known. Indeed, it was only
in the year 1798 that Van Diemen's Land was discovered to be an island
separated from New Holland, of which before that time it had been
thought to form a large projection or promontory.

New Holland is situated in the vast ocean extending to the south and
east of the Spice Islands, and it lies about even with the lower part of
the continent of Africa, only at an immense distance due east of it. Its
extreme points of latitude are 39 degrees and 10 1/2 degrees S., and of
longitude 112 degrees and 153 degrees 40 minutes E. from Greenwich,
so that it includes in its huge extent climates both tropical and
temperate, but none that are decidedly cold. It must be remembered,
indeed, that the countries south of the equator become colder at
the same latitude than those that extend towards the north; but,
nevertheless, the nearest point towards the South Pole, 39 degrees,
nearly answering to the situation of Naples in the northern hemisphere,
cannot be otherwise than a mild and warm climate. The shape of New
Holland is very irregular, its coast being much broken and indented by
various great bays and smaller inlets; but it has been estimated to have
a _width_ from E. to W. of 3000 miles, and a breadth from N. to S. of
2000, containing altogether not less than three millions of square
miles. Of course, it is impossible, in so large an extent of country,
that the interior parts of it should have been explored during the few
years in which any portion of it has been occupied by Europeans.
Accordingly, almost all the inland tracts are still a vast blank,
respecting which very little is known, and that little is far from
inviting. Indeed many hindrances oppose themselves to the perf